Archive for May, 2012

Bucharest is full of magnificent Nineteenth and Twentieth century buildings, wide open streets and green leafy parks.

Everywhere you look there is another Neo Gothic, Neo Classical, Art Deco or Bauhaus inspired apartment block, palace or public building.

Bucharest is certainly not entirely an architectural nirvana, as they had their own version of Whelan, a dictator by the name of Nicolae Ceauşescu.

During his fanatical reign (1965-1989) he manages to have much of the old quarter demolished to make way for his obsession in Socialist Realist developments. The biggest of these is the Palace of the Parliament, a monolithic construction of 1,100 rooms and 12 stories high. Next to the Pentagon, it’s the world’s second largest public building.

There is more than just grand old buildings in Bucharest. You can also visit the ‘Dimitrie Gusti’ National Village Museum in Herăstrău Park. This is a large open-air ethnographic museum with houses, churches, mills and farm buildings from all over Romania.

Everything is made of timber and therefore in constant need of renovation. However the craftsmanship and detail in many of these old and somewhat primitive structures is amazing.

Plovdiv is a town endowed with a rich history starting with the Tracian settlement, on Nebet Tepe, through the Roman ruins to the Bulgarian Revival churches and houses. The day we chose to tour the city was a public holiday, celebrating the Bulgarian liberation from the Ottoman Empire, so it was family day in Plovdiv.

Our first night on the road from Sofia was in Veliko Tarnova, a city located on the bends of the Yantra River and famous for being the historical capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire and the medieval stronghold of Tsarevets.

We stumbled across a restaurant that specialised in Bulgarian cuisine and not knowing what this was, we ordered a dish each.

What followed was embarrassing.

When the food arrived we were so dumbfounded by the size and the apparent richness of what was before us, we just sat there, looked at the meal, then looked at each other and then looked back at the meal again.

Both the dishes had been baked in the oven and were full of different cheeses, meats and vegetables.

It was all delicious but just one of them would have been enough for both of us. In fact one of them would have been enough for an entire tour bus.

Bulgaria has not become a major tourist attraction yet and as a result their cuisine hasn’t gone through the food processor of tourist tastes.

The Bulgarians love to eat so it’s not hard to find a good restaurant with authentic food.

Then there’s the Bulgarian beers.

Every village seems to have their own brew and the big companies like Tuborg, Heineken and Amstel also have a local offering.

Unlike the food the weather has been inconsistent, hot and humid one moment and then pelting down the next.

The first time I visited Athens you could climb all over the Acropolis, even the Parthenon, and there wasn’t a crane in sight.

Today it’s a work in progress, with scaffolding, cranes and even a small railroad to move large chunks of marble around the construction sight.

Everywhere you look there is new marble. Columns have been straightened, new pieces put in place and new pediments added. There’s even wheelchair access, via a lift, that runs up the cliff on the north side.

This restoration project has been going on since 1975 and is due for completion soon.

Restoration works aren’t just happening on the big rock, they are all over Athens. Every time they dig a hole, they seem to discover another ancient artifact.

That’s no more evident than with the new Acropolis Museum.

This amazing addition to the world of archaeology is a living display, being built over an archeological dig that’s happening right under your feet. Much of the ground floor and courtyard is made of glass, so you can see the work as it happens.

There is even space in the new museum for the frieze that Lord Elgin purloined all those years ago.

The top floor is dedicated to the Parthenon and built to the same size and proportions, with sweeping views up to the Acropolis. As they find more of the original monument they slot them into place in the display.

Restoration work has been going on in Athens for millennia and in fact the city has always been changing and redefining itself.

Apart from the current work on the Acropolis, the Stoa of Attalos, in the Ancient Agora, was completely rebuilt in the 1950s’.

Even the meat market on Athinus Street has undergone change since I was last here. Now instead of sides of lamb sitting out in the Athenian heat, they are all refrigerated and some are even wrapped in plastic.

Most of the Plaka and Monastiraki are entirely made up of walking streets and the little cafes with bain maries full of moussaka and Greek potatoes are all gone.

Athens is different to what I remember and I am sure that if ever I return, it will be different again.

The Greek flag isn’t a political statement but rather a reflection of the environment.

Now I don’t know if the blue domes and cubical whitewashed walls, of the Greek Orthodox churches, came before the flag, or whether the flag was inspired by the white foam of waves breaking against the blueness of the Aegean Sea.

The fact is that blue and white is everywhere.

The hotel staff wear blue and white, the table clothes in the restaurants are blue and white. I even think that the seagulls look whiter against the azure blue sky.

And the daily flotilla of cruise ships, disgorging day trippers, are conveniently painted white.

About the only thing that isn’t white are the beaches, they are a dark, grey and stoney and that’s due to the fact that Santorini is built on the remnants of a volcanic caldera.

The most popular villages of Fira, Imerovigli and Oia cling to the side of this ancient volcanic cone. Everywhere you are forced to look down into the blue water -filled void,

Ancient Thera or Fira also sits high above the Aegean, on Mount Messavouno.

It has been inhabited since the 9th century BC, however nothing remains of the original Bronze Age inhabitants. They were all destroyed by the volcano that makes Santorini the geological marvel it is today.

What remains now is from the Hellenistic period and even these ancient white marble columns still contrast with the deep blue sky, and say Greece.

Most people remember Santorini for the sunsets over the caldera, I’ll remember it for blue and white.